Genre: games • role playing • Platform: Pc •
Developer: Iron Tower Studios • Publisher: Iron Tower Studios • http://www.irontowerstudio.com/
Status: I want it! •

From: http://www.sorcerers.net/Games/NWN2/Walkthrough/index.php

More about Neverwinter Nights 2

From: http://www.irontowerstudio.com/forum/index.php?topic=231.0

I thought I had already posted this one, but I cannot find it. I have my eye on this game because they are exploring game aspects outside the usual combat-centred gameplay. Since I often have as much fun with the exploring or cutting plants part of a game than I have with the endless wolf-killing, I want this game!

You are standing in front of a fortress and dying to get inside because that’s where all the cool kids are. There is a gate, but it’s guarded. You need a pass to enter. Your options are:

- knock some sense into the guards with your war hammer and go inside.
- persuade the guards to let you in: Hi there! I’m with the Tavern Food & Service Inspection Agency. We’ve heard rumors that you have rats running around in every cellar. Well, it’s fucking better be a misunderstanding because if I see a single rodent-looking motherfucker - which includes this rat-faced bastard over there - I’m shutting this evil fortress down TONIGHT! Now open that fucking door already!
- ask around about the pass, find out who has one, and either steal it or trade it for something.
- create a diversion - Look behind you, a three-headed monkey! - and sneak inside. Or hire some thugs to attack the guards and while the guards are busy breaking some heads, sneak inside.
- wall-climbing text-adventures are fun and very ninja-like: your dagger blade snaps with a loud noise and you plummet to your death cursing stupid non-combat gameplay.
- impersonate an officer - Atten-hut! Is that how you salute an officer of the watch, swine? Stop eyeballing me! You’re not worthy to look your superiors in the eye. Stand straight, eyes forward! What is the name of your commanding officer?
- bribe your way in.
- forge a fake pass using your knowledge of what a real pass looks like and skills (lore, literacy, scribing, etc)

More about Age of Decadence

Genre: games • role playing • Platform: Pc •
Developer: Rampant • Publisher: Rampant • http://www.rampantgames.com/frayedknights/
Status: I played this one • Actually I am still playing it •

From: http://au.gamespot.com/pc/rpg/avencastriseofthemage/review.html

As I have said, I bought avencast as some reviews sounded interesting. It has good ideas but I will need to return to it and play it some more before I have any opinion.

Gamespot of course have an opinion

Every dungeon in Avencast is loaded with brainteasers both big and small, so it feels like you’re engaged in a more momentous task even when you’re really just playing delivery boy or killing a boss monster. You gather the runes needed to complete the inscription on a shrine; tread carefully across platforms labeled with letters and symbols that must be activated in a specific pattern; weaken invulnerable creatures with beams activated by manipulating telescopes. Many dungeons have an adventure game-lite vibe. None of the puzzles are all that difficult, although each requires just enough thinking that you can’t sink into the typical action RPG stupor that resembles something akin to a hypnotic state. You’re not handed solutions, either, which means you often have to experiment with levers and the like instead of just reading books and scrolls as in so many other RPGs. If anything, the many riddles serve to more thoroughly immerse you in the gameworld and make the game feel like more of a traditional RPG epic than a hack-and-slash, despite the arcade-oriented combat.

More about Avencast: Rise of the Mage

From: http://www.gameslave.co.uk/content/depths-of-peril-review/

not a site I have heard of, but since DoP is my game of the moment…

Overall, Depths of Peril is definitely worth a try, graphics and learning curve aside, the game offers plenty of depth and the diplomatic aspect of the game gives it a lot more punch than other RPGs on the market at the moment. However, it is definitely not for the RPG beginner and don’t expect a game to rival the likes of Oblivion in looks and depth.

More about Depths of Peril

From: http://news.filefront.com/gaming-today-qa-akellas-mariana-vashurina-discusses-disciples-iii-renaissance/

More about Disciples III: Renaissance

From: http://www.downthewall.com/archive/2008/03/interview-age-of-decadence-developer-says-choice-defines-rpgs/

more about the focus on player choice and freedom

Vince: No more than 60%. How does it compare? Well, many companies and publishers believe that most people will play a game only once, so they focus on making that single playthrough as memorable as possible, without worrying about replay value. Consider Knights of the Old Republic. First, the “OMG! I’m Revan!” surprise works only once and it tends to overshadow the replays. Second, there isn’t much to replay (unless you really love the story and want to experience exactly the same thing again). Keep in mind, we aren’t talking about the overall quality of the game here, we are talking about the replay value.

We designed the game with replayability in mind. You can replay the game 3-4 times taking different paths, discovering different things, arriving to different conclusions. Almost like playing several different games within the same story arc. Needless to say, we can’t rely on twists and surprises. Instead we focus on the player’s perspective, different ways to progress, and different storylines to follow.

More about Age of Decadence

From: http://www.rampantgames.com/blog/2008/05/frayed-knights-pilot-release-aftermath.html

Rampant coyote release a free pilot asking people to fill a questionnaire for feedback. Why not try it?

More about Frayed Knights

From: http://www.guardian.co.uk/technology/2008/apr/28/games.censorship?gusrc=rss&feed=technology

15 years from now, the prime minister of the day will have grown up playing computer games, just as 15 years ago we had the first prime minister to have grown up watching television, and 30 years ago to have grown up listening to the radio.

More about No Game

From: http://www.rpgfan.com/reviews/depthsofperil/index.html

Depths of Peril is a game for true gamers. This is rare among anything with the letters “RPG” printed near it. Most RPGs these days excel in presentation: the story, the graphics, and the sound are superb. Soldak didn’t have the budget or the manpower to boost these aspects of the game, and even if they did, I don’t know if they would have bothered. Depths of Peril doesn’t care to be a book, or a movie, or a soundtrack. It is simply a game, and it is a great game, so long as all you want is a solid, interactive experience with none of the frills of high-budget PC titles. For thirty dollars retail (direct from Soldak’s website), it’s not a bad deal; plus, you can pat yourself on the back for supporting an independent developer!

More about Depths of Peril

From: http://www.gamesradar.com/pc/depths-of-peril/review/depths-of-peril/a-20080505104313282022/g-2008050510576329015

DoP getting more and more coverage - I hope that helps them, as it is a fun and addictive game

Depths has three main problems. Firstly, some odd difficulty spikes, presumably coming from how unpredictable the world is. Secondly, being an action-RPG gold-collector, it’s a trifle repetitive. And finally, it would have been nice to have multiplayer. All these are eminently forgivable - especially the last, when the game manages more life than most humans can manage. If Hellgate left you with deep wounds of despair, this is the healing potion for you.

More about Depths of Peril

Had preordered from Amazon because I had vouchers to use, and for once they actually had it delivered on time. I think there is a huge difference whether it is sent by amazon or by their Jersey partner… just a guess.

Now it took me all evening and through the night to install then update the thing, so I actually played a bit of WoW last night. This morning I managed to get about 30 minutes of play (after 20 minutes of faffing about making characters up) before the server went down at 9:00 uk time for some maintenance, should be back up soon.

Still, I had the beta so I am probably not as eager as some, but I am looking forward to exploring the different classes and races… a lot. Will post up server names here soon, in case some of you want to join me At the moment I have only a. I plan to have a go at an RvR and a RP server, and also of course try the other side - but at the moment that is the popular side so of course I had to pick the forces of “order”...

Servers:
I have an Empire character on the “Kazak Eight Peaks” (or some such name) server - but this server is now full so I might have to recreate it elsewhere to play with friends - “World’s Edge Mountains” looks moderate at the moment. I also have created a character on the “Ellyrion” server, again on the order side. This is a RvR/RP server so will have to see how far I get

Kazak Eight Peaks - Empire - Witch Hunter - Ifigenia
Ellyrion - Dwarves - Rune Priest - Agnil
World’s Edge Mountains- High Elves - White Lion - Zenaide

More about Warhammer Online

From: http://jaguarusf.blogspot.com/2008/10/kings-bounty-legend-review.html

I follow a lot fewer games nowadays, but this one still looks like a winner :D

Quests are fun, simple, and varied as a sky full of snowflakes. At one point, the proprietor of the Dragon Fang Inn sent me to fetch his business’ namesake. What could have turned into a nasty battle with a blue dragon was resolved with a mean left hook. That’s right, I knocked the dragon’s fang out with my bare hands, and he thanked me for it. (Medieval dentists are hard to come by.) Another time, a creepy royal wanted me to fetch him a frog, so he could kiss it and turn it into his bride. Naturally, the first frog I came across was male, and none too happy that all his women were being snatched up by a perverse prince with a propensity for puckering up with those of the warty persuasion. Before this game’s release, there were a lot of rumors concerning the translation, but I’m happy to report that the dialog is a blast to read. When I asked to join a swamp witch’s coven, she interrogated me with a series of questions. After carefully considering each response, she finally hit me with a stumper: Can you be a woman? Because this is a witch’s coven (yeah, yeah… she got me)!

More about King’s Bounty

There’s actually not too much damage since the last time I published this as I didnt buy that many games this year - but I did buy a few.
And I didnt play back many old ones, so the list of not-really-played list is still embarrassing.

Still I did manage to give Avencast, Depths of Peril, Evils Islands, Might and Magic 6, TF2, Dwarf Fortress, Warhammer Online and a few others a whirl - not much of a dent on the list though :S

I do think I am missing some, will add them when they come back to me.

Read More...

This refers to Challenge: use what you have

I’m not doing too bad on books and havent bought a DVD in a long time, but games are tough - I am not playing my existing games and still tempted to buy some of the great games coming out… maybe making this public will make me stick to the challenge…

Games I plan to revisit:

Descent 2 and Descent 3
Sacrifice
Freespace
Red Faction
Evil Islands (under way)
Might and Magic 6 (under way)
Disciples 2
Sacred
Neverwinter Nights
Arcanum
SWAT 4
Oddworld
Chaser
Fable
SIlverfall
Max Payne
No One Lives Forever 2
Prey
Iwar 2
H&D 2
Armies of Exigo
Europa 1400
Virtual Villagers
Hostile Waters

That’s just a random grab from my list  - I’d welcome suggestions/votes as to which one anyone is interested in my revisiting and writing about

From: https://store.stardock.com/application.aspx?id=agebooty&theme=impulse

I was checking the Impulse preorder list and the screenshots for that game “age of booty” looked familiar. So I went to the Certain Affinity website and sure enough, the game is now called Age of Booty - live on the xbox, coming any day now on PC.

The reviews speak of “well crafted”, “easy to get addicted”, “catan for the rest of us”, “sharp humor”. I think I will preorder - at $9.99 they deserve a chance

AoB’s own website is at http://certainaffinity.com/ageofbooty/
Bunch of reviews at http://www.giantbomb.com/age-of-booty/61-20564/user_reviews/

UPDATE: Grrr - tried preordering on Impulse but no luck “Not available in your country”. Now what is the point of digital distribution if they keep the outdated market limitation view?

More about Plunder